


The Other Half of Me

by calliopes_muse



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 09:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10511091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliopes_muse/pseuds/calliopes_muse
Summary: "Fix-It" fic after the proposal mess, includes possible spoilers for recent episodes even though I haven't watched the show in FOREVER so I probably screwed it all up.Snow gets drunk. Emma isn't sure if she's really missing Hook, and she's not sure why. Regina understands that feeling all too well, and she thinks she knows how to help Emma.This could be more than one chapter if you all like it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Hook/Emma relationship and Hood/Regina relationships are mentioned but not in depth, definitely nothing sexual (no way, no how!). I needed a "Fix-It" fic for this tragedy of a show and what they've done to our ladies. Swan Queen is always endgame in my heart. Screw the writers!

Emma drained the last of her beer as she watched the two women who had tricked her into showing up at the bar talk animatedly. Only thirty minutes ago, Snow was waving her arms around and talking louder than usual. Now, as she finished her third “artisanal” drink, she began to giggle more and slide down in the booth. 

Regina, on the other hand, was still the epitome of elegance. A queen as always, Emma thought to herself. She had a hard time looking away. There was an openness to Regina that Emma hadn’t seen before, her smile was genuine and warm. She looked…free, unburdened. The regal woman sipped gingerly at her martini in between playing with the skewered olive. Once she caught Emma staring at her as she slid the olive to the end of the stick and nipped a bite off with her teeth. Emma’s heart raced as she shifted in her seat and cleared her throat.

During the night, the three of them had all taken turns at doing the expected bad-mouthing of exes. 

Snow’s loosened lips had also relaxed her thoughts on the matter it seemed. “I wanted you to be happy, Emma. I wanted you to have the fairy tale life, but damn it, you’re the Savior and you deserve better.” The pixie-haired woman slammed her hand on the table for emphasis. “You’re not the kid that went to jail years ago for stealing. You’re not a pirate like him. You’ve grown and changed. You’re so much more now, and you deserve someone who loves you for the amazing woman and mother you’ve become. More than that, you deserve someone who won’t leave you when things get tough.”

As Snow blathered on, Emma had stared down into her beer. She knew her mom was right, but it seemed like everything kept putting her on a fast train right into Killian’s arms. There was never room or time to breathe. Every time she thought life would slow down for her to get her mind wrapped around what she really wanted or needed, to make choices that were right for her, a new villain came out of the woodwork to terrorize all of them. At the end of every new battle or somewhere along the line, it seemed that her relationship with Killian took a new step forward that she wasn’t even looking for or planning on. It was just there and unexpected. Maybe that’s what True Love was supposed to be like? That’s what she kept telling herself anyway. How did she know though? She knew nothing of True Love except what she saw of her parents. Something that just seemed so spontaneous and natural. 

“I need another drink. Anyone else?” Emma stood up quick, frustrated at the turn her mind had taken, and gestured to the other two. 

Regina smiled up at her and slid out of the booth. “I’ll go with you.” She looked back at Snow and asked, “Refill?” Snow’s eyes were drooping closed, and she could barely lift her head. Regina turned to Emma smirking, leaning in just a little, “How much you want to bet her head will be in the bowl of peanuts when we get back?”

Emma actually snorted at that, in spite of her mood. “If she is, I get dibs on taking blackmail pics.”

The two women walked to the bar and Regina motioned for two more drinks. She turned to Emma and leaned an elbow on the bar. “You’ve been quieter than usual tonight. I was hoping this would help your broken heart. I’m sorry if it’s only made it worse.”

Emma dropped her head and shook it, chuckling lightly before looking over at her…friend. “I don’t know if I’d really call it a broken heart. I don’t even know what I’d call it.” She sighed and stood up straighter. “It’s this weird sense of emptiness mixed with relief. Like, I miss him, but I’m glad he’s not here too.”

Something flickered in Regina’s dark eyes, a flash of knowing emotions, before she looked down. The drinks came and Emma reached for hers. Before Emma could break the moment, Regina placed her hand on her wrist. “Let’s finish these quick and get Snow home. Then I want you to come by later.”

Emma swallowed hard. The nerves where Regina’s fingers rested burned and raced under her skin. “Okay,” she croaked out with a nod.

Back at the table, Snow hadn’t face-planted into the peanuts, but she was slumped over in the booth. Regina called Henry to make sure all was well with him and his camping trip, while Emma checked in at the station. David was more than amused by his wife’s antics and assured Emma he would be home shortly to get her to bed. He also had the perfect morning hangover torture prepared – eggs and plenty of greasy sausage.

********************************************************

After getting Snow safely home and in David’s care, Emma drove over to Regina’s house. She felt antsy in spite of the alcohol in her system. She tapped her fingers on the wheel before getting the nerve up to exit the cruiser. Ambling up the walk, there was a strange sense of déjà vu. Maybe it was the time of night or the light of the moon? Maybe it was the way the lights inside the house shone? It felt like the first night she walked up that path with Henry six years ago. Her heart racing and uncertain.

The door opened much as it had that night, but framed by the light was a much calmer Regina without her heels and jacket, smiling at Emma and holding a tumbler of apple cider.

Emma took the tumbler and smiled at Regina, motioning back down the walkway. “I was just thinking how different things are now when I come to see you than that first night we met, but I still got this crazy feeling of déjà vu. Does that ever happen to you?” She continued through the doorway as Regina closed and locked the door behind them.

She watched as one of Regina’s dark eyebrows lifted slightly. It was a sexy as hell gesture, Emma had to admit. “Now that you say that, I do sometimes sense that from time-to-time, especially around you.” Regina added the last part as she walked into the study. A small fire warmed the space, and Emma slipped off her sweater, draping it over the couch.

“What do you mean ‘around me’?” Emma asked as she approached the fire to stand next to Regina. They both stared at it as if transfixed.

“Like…,” Emma finally turned to look at Regina, the dark curls shadowing her neck and cheek. She had the urge to tuck the curls behind her ear to see all of the perfect brown skin.

Instead, she closed her eyes and took a quick breath, “Like?”

Regina bit at her bottom lip and tipped her head to the side, her voice soft, “Familiarity. Home.” She turned fully to Emma then, her dark eyes looked fully at Emma, and it took Emma’s breath away. “As if we’ve done this before, many times.”

Emma started to shake her head, not sure if she was ready to hear where Regina wanted to take her. She backed away, her heart thumping hard in her chest.

“Em-ma? Don’t panic…just listen.” Regina held her hands up before going to sit on the couch. She tapped the space next to her. “Come here and sit. Just hear me out.”

This was the moment that Emma always ran. She felt the panic rise up. Her palms were sweaty, and she was rubbing them on her jeans. Her breath was shaky and coming it short bursts. She was looking everywhere but at the soulful dark eyes calling to her from across the room, but she couldn’t stop herself. She kept looking back. She kept going back to Regina’s eyes, to her face, to her mouth, to her…it was always back to her. With a shaky but determined sigh, she walked the short few steps needed to take up her spot next to Regina on the couch.

“Okay…I’m listening.”

Regina picked up her drink from the table beside couch and took a slow sip before turning to look at Emma. “I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about letting Robin go, yet again. I thought certainly I should feel something more than what I am. I almost felt guilty because I didn’t.” 

She took another sip and set her drink down on the table again. “What I felt was empty and relieved.”

Emma looked up at her, astonished to hear her own words echoed back to her. Before Emma could say or question her, Regina lifted her hand and went on, letting her know there was more to tell. “The empty feeling lingered. Like a piece of me was here when it needed to be somewhere else. Yet, I knew deep down inside that I didn’t love that version of Robin. What I had with Robin, I needed at the time, but not this. So, I didn’t understand it. I chose to ignore it and deal with other matters. I had to deal with the Evil Queen and get rid of her. What I didn’t understand until after I sent her back is that Robin and the Evil Queen are the two that are meant for each other. Those were the two that were supposed to meet in that tavern. Those were the two that met when we went back to the Enchanted Forest and you and Henry went to New York.”

Tears started to well up in Emma’s eyes as feelings, thoughts, and ideas began to form and click into place. Regina reached out and took her hand, keeping her grounded. “You know what I don’t feel anymore, Emma?” She paused waiting for Emma to turn her eyes to her. “Empty. I don’t feel empty anymore, just relieved. Like I can finally move on and be happy. Like this is where I belong and with the people I belong with.” She squeezed Emma’s hands for emphasis.

Emma looked down at their joined hands. Her voiced cracked when she finally spoke, “I was born in the Enchanted Forest.”

“Yes,” Regina scooted closer and nodded quickly, adding, “But you came through the wardrobe and were raised here. You are as much a part of this world as you were that one, and like me, you have two sides and you can choose.”

“Choose?” Emma looked up with hopeful yet frightened eyes.

Regina nodded again, holding Emma’s hand between her own, even tighter than before if that was possible. “Yes, Emma. You can choose like I did. Part of you can go, the part that needs to escape, needs to run. The part that feels empty in this world. The other part of you can choose to stay here – with Henry and your parents…,” Regina leaned forward, pulling one of her hands away to push back Emma’s hair and cup her cheek, “with me.”

“Regina,” Emma sighed, bringing up her free hand to grip at Regina’s shoulder as she fell into the kiss she had been waiting six years for.

Shifting closer, they lost themselves in the taste and feel of the other woman, finally understanding what home and relief meant. With a soft moan, Emma broke the kiss. She almost dove back in at the feel of Regina’s hand kneading greedily on her hip, nails digging in.

“Show me how to do it, what you did with the Evil Queen,” Emma insisted, giving Regina’s swollen lips another quick kiss. “The sooner, the better.”

Regina nodded again, before pushing Emma back onto the couch and kissing her again. “Absolutely.” 

With a swirl of Regina’s wrist and purple smoke, they were gone.


End file.
